Royal Family learnt lesson over Princess Diana

The Queen and Prince Philip at the gates to Buckingham Palace days after Diana's death

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The Queen and Prince Philip at the gates to Buckingham Palace days after Diana's death

By Andrew Pierce

12:01AM BST 18 Aug 2007

One of the Queen's most trusted former advisers has disclosed that she feared that republican MPs would call for an end to the monarchy because of public anger at the Royal Family's initial reaction to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.

Mary Francis, who worked for the Queen for seven years as a private secretary, said that the first warning sign that courtiers were ill-prepared came when she telephoned Buckingham Palace after the princess's death.

Mrs Francis, who was abroad at the time, said: "I rang my colleagues to ask if they wanted me to return.

"Their first response was: 'You don't need to come back. We expect her family will want a private funeral.' Then all hell broke loose.

"I received a message shortly after saying come back as soon as you can."

Mrs Francis, speaking in the Radio 4 documentary A Royal Recovery, said: "I do remember walking into Buckingham Palace the first morning I was back.

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"Although there were so many people around it was very quiet. It was a threatening and rather unpleasant atmosphere."

As the clamour for the Royal Family to leave Balmoral intensified, amid rows over whether the Union flag should be flown at half mast at Buckingham Palace, the "ferocity" of the media criticism stung even the most seasoned advisers.

Mrs Francis said that harsh lessons were learned by the Royal Family and its advisers about the need to respond to public opinion.

"If the response had not been made we might have seen events develop in a different way and even political calls for some kind of republican action," she said.

Penny Junor, a royal biographer, tells the programme: "The whole family was in danger. The minute Prince Charles heard Diana had been killed his first words were: 'They are going to blame me.'."

A Royal Recovery, Radio 4, Tuesday, August 21 9am and again at 9.30pm.